The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-09
THE STAFF OF LIFE.
A Compilation of Interesting Historical
Facts Relating to Bread.

Facts Relating to Bread.
Etymology-Food made from grain.
The earliest history we have of bread
shows the people did not possess the
knowledge of leaven or yeast, and that
the primitive way of making bread was
to soak the grain in water, then press
or bruise it, forming it into cakes and
drying it, either by the sun or through
the action of fire. The next advance
ment in preparation, or rather the i'm
provement, was to pound or bray be-
tween stones, or in a mortar, before
moistening or baking, and from this
operation-braying; some etymologists
Especially Tooke) are led to believe
the word bread is from prayed, it being
the past participle of bray. This is
contrary to etymology, as shown by
Webster and Skeats, who quote some OF
the old words: Anglo-Saxon, breed;
Middle English. breed or bred; old Ger
man, Prot; Swedish, brod Danish,
braed; Belgian, brood; Hebrew, barouth,
and insist that the root of all these in
dictate it was brew, bake or break,
and so on, and are the natural
results to formation by fermentation.
Todd remarks, sit is as full as probable
the Saxon breed, whence our bread,
is from the verb bredan, to nourish,"
but l am of the opinion that the word
prayed is probably the correct one. A
rather more elaborate pressing or grind
ing of grain led to such simple forms
of bread as the oat-cakes of Scotland.
The bannocks of Scotland, made of
barley meal or pease meal, the Jewish
passover cakes of wheat meal; the
hampers of Australia, made from wheat;
the East Indian scenes, the cord-dodger
of America, and the cassava cakes of
South America, made from the cassa-
va-root or tapioca-plant.
These were made from coarse meal,
salt and water, and kneaded with the
hands upon a fiat surface; the mess was
then either rolled thin or shaped with
the hands and baked in or before the
| fire. And this bread as named above
represents what is called the unleaven,
as no leaven or yeast was added to cause
fermentation (the porosity and light
ness of the mass.
Referring to sacred history we find
bread first mentioned in Genesis xviii, 5,
when Abraham offered to fetch a
morsel of bread" Again in xix, 3,
HE made them feast and did bake
unleaven bread"
The prehistoric excavations at the
Lake Dwellings of Switzerland show
abundant evidence that bread-making
was one of the arts of our prehistoric
ancestors, and as early as the stone
period we find stones for grinding meal
and also specimens of the bread have
been disinterred in large quantities.
The dough must have consisted of grains
of barley coarsely crushed, and formed
with hands into small cakes about the
size of tea-biscuit
Tradition give, lis that Ching Noung,
a Chinese ruler B. e, 1898, was gifted
by the gods with the art of making
bread with grain. and then taught his
people the great blessing. At very
early period the art of baking was car
ried almost to perfection by the Egyp-
tians, who baked cakes in loaves in
many varieties and used several kinds
of flour, and favored their breads with
aromatic ingredients. In Egypt it is
highly probable the Jews learned the
art of leavening bread. 1t is supposed
that the Egyptians were the first to use
leaven, and the secret afterward be-
came known to the Greeks, who, &C.
cording to Diodorus, ascribed the in
vention of leavening bread to Pan, who
was originally an Egyptian deity, and
it is mentioned that no less than sixty.
two varieties of bread were known to
the ancient Greeks, and from them il
became known to the Romans, anc
B. G. 40 the art of bread-making be-
came so respected that it was changed
by them to profession.
B. c. 14S, numbers of skilled Greek
bakers came to Rome and, being giver
special privileges, soon obtained mo-
nopoly over native bakers.
Pliny says professional bakers were
first introduced into Rome at the close
of the war with Perseus, King of Mace.
don. The art of making bread made
its way northward slowly, as it was
carried by the Romans during their
campaigns in the northern countries,
and who spread the knowledge far and
wide as they went.
The difference between leaven anC
yeast is that yeast is formed by mix.
ture of hops and barley, or potatoes and
malt, and allowed, through the action
of heat and other sources, to become q
mass of yeast blossoms or yeast germs,
which can be dried and used at any
time. Leaven or sour dough, is dough
in which putrefaction has begun, and
which, owing to the presence and rapiC
growth of the yeast plant or germs
quickly communicates its character t.
the fresh dough with which it mingles
and causes the process of fermentation
to take place. The use of leaven il